[Terrapreta] Issued Patents and protesting same due to prior art.

[Len Walde]

FW: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 71Hello Nikolaus and Happy New Year.

I refer you to the following U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office site, which may be of interest:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/2200_2202.htm#sect2202

in it you will find: "Any person at any time may cite to the Office in writing prior art consisting of patents or printed publications which that person believes to have a bearing on the patentability of any claim of a particular patent. If the person explains in writing the pertinency and manner of applying such prior art to at least one claim of the patent, the citation of such prior art and the explanation thereof will become a part of the official file of the patent. At the written request of the person citing the prior art, his or her identity will be excluded from the patent file and kept confidential."

By coincidence, we are considering beginning this process which may lead to the reexamination of a patent due the existence of prior art, created by an associate years ago. 

Your situation is more pertinent in that there are so many more people interested in the technology to create charcoal for terrapreta related work.

Good luck,

Len Walde, P.E. 




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Nikolaus Foidl 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 2:22 PM
  Subject: [Terrapreta] FW: Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 71


  Dear Greg!

  I did not know that you are an agent for some guys in Hawaii who want to sell me my own development. I thought this is a information transfer list for people interested in Charcoal and Terra Preta and not some obscure 
  Address gathering - sending selling -offers event. If you did gather my address and gave this information to those guys what do I have to expect next year? Somebody trying to sell me fresh air from Bolivia or penis enlargement pills? This is called pishing or worse.
  He mentions your address and pasted a copy of your communication with me in the mail he send me. Please if you where the person getting those people the address then don't do it again.
  Some years ago something similar happened to me in Guatemala. I held a lecture about Biogas and Reactor designs and 7 month later one guy from Guatemala who asked me for an electronic copy of my power point presentation came to Nicaragua, Managua ( my Hometown at that time) and announced with lot of noise a lecture about Biogas and reactor design and I got a personal invitation with reduced entrance fee offer of 300 US$ to hear and see my own power point presentation. That exact feeling i got a moment ago when i got this mail from Hawaii.
  So please keep the list free of sellers what ever they want to sell. If you did not give them my address my deepest apology if wrongly accused.
  Happy New Year to all.
  Nikolaus Foidl
  ------ Forwarded Message
  From: Nikolaus Foidl <nfoidl at desa.com.bo>
  Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:00:58 -0400
  To: Dick Cox <rcox at hawaii.edu>
  Conversation: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 71
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 71

  Dear Mr. Cox!

  Thank you for your nice letter. I stumbled over high pressure carbon from a literature research I did some 15 years ago and found at least 10 mentions of this process, the oldest dating back to 1890 or so and the latest in the 40 ties. I my self have worked with pressurized charcoal and black liquor production( lab scale unit with 5 liters, pressure up to 200 bar) in the laboratory since some 12 years.( there are sufficient proofs and photos about the work and the pressure kettle, paid by the Swiss government) When I this year after having build my own bigger pressure cooker( 35 bar working pressure)  learned to know in the Terra Preta congress in Australia that a Dr. Antal from Hawaii had patented this process I was really wondering how prior known art like a wonder can turn into a patent again.( well in reality happens with more then 50% of the patents) I for sure am willing to share my experience with whom ever is interested in this way of producing charcoal. I am not selling charcoal, its for internal use only. As far as I know there is no whatever patent filed in Bolivia( please correct me if I am wrong) and if there is any intention my reactors and the publications accessible on internet and in all public libraries about prior known art in this area would not allow so. 
  I don't know Mr. Antal and I have or had no intention to interfere with his work. I wish him all the best in his work, because I feel that Charcoal will be important in future and we need more people working in this area.
  I wish you happy Hollidays and a prosperous New Year.
  With my best regards Nikolaus Foidl


  On 12/31/07 4:54 PM, "Dick Cox" <rcox at hawaii.edu> wrote:


    Dear Mr. Foidl:
     
    I read with interest your description of a pressurized carbonization chamber you have constructed.  As you probably know, Dr. Michael Antal (Coral Industries Distinguished Professor, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii) has developed a technology that uses pressure to carbonize biomass quickly and efficiently.  The University of Hawaii holds patents on Dr. Antal's Flash CarbonizationT (FC) technology in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia and we are always looking for parties with similar interests who might be interested in obtaining a license to the technology.  Our approach has been to grant licensees geographic (and/or field-of-use) exclusivity with regard to the use of the technology for making charcoal and a worldwide non-exclusive license to sell charcoal made via the FC technology.  In addition to the rights to make, use, and sell such charcoal in patent protected territories, our licensees get access to Dr. Antal, his laboratory, and his current research via an apprenticeship in his lab after a formal license is executed.  If you are interested in learning more about licensing the University of Hawaii's Flash CarbonizationT technology, both for the right to make/use/sell charcoal in our patent protected territories and to gain a fuller understanding of Dr. Antal's work, please feel free to contact me via email or through my contact information below.
     
    Sincerely,
     
    Richard Cox

    Director, Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development

    University of Hawaii

    2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 280

    Honolulu, HI  96822

    Phone: (808) 539-3817

    Fax: (808) 539-3833

    www.otted.hawaii.edu


     
     
    -----Original Message-----
    From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
    [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Nikolaus Foidl
    Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 8:49 AM
    To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
    Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 71, message
    8Greg!
     
    Dear Greg!
     
    You are exactly right. Its a cylinder with a pressure bottom and a submarine
    like pressure lid with a quick opening and closing device, a sealing which
    will work in a temperature range of up to 700 degrees Celsius and a feeding
    tube for compressed air and cooling steam and a pressure release valve which
    keeps pressure at a preset value. Additional you need a security pressure
    release valve which is set some bars higher then your working pressure and
    then you are set to work. Make sure that your pressure kiln can withstand at
    least 2,5 times the working pressure under a 1,5 time higher temperature
    then your working temperature so things dont go out of hand. My kiln works
    at 35 bars and 400 to 450 degrees Celsius and has a 2 " wall thickness made
    of an special heat resistant steel. Its not for backyard operation, its kind
    of expensive for small volumes. I will produce some 20 tons of Charcoal a
    day with this Kiln.
     
     
    Best regards Nikolaus
    > 
    > Message: 8
    > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:57:39 -0700
    > From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril at earthlink.net>
    > Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 70
    > To: "Terra Preta" <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
    > Message-ID: <004901c8496a$5fb94ec0$2101a8c0 at GREG>
    > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
    > reply-type=original
    > 
    > Ok, how does one make a high pressure kiln - I keep having this vision of
    a
    > metal box with a presser relief valve that opens once it reaches a certain
    > pre set pressure.
    > 
    > Greg H.
    > 
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "Nikolaus Foidl" <nfoidl at desa.com.bo>
    > To: <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
    > Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 14:10
    > Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 11, Issue 70
    > 
    > 
    >> Dear Gerhard!
    >> 
    >> I only heat the Wood up to 280 degrees Celsius .In my atmospheric kiln
    >> this
    >> takes some 3 hours. ( Gas outlet temperature from the gas tube). I still
    >> don't know how many time it will take on my new high pressure kiln. The
    >> torrefied wood is very brittle as most of the hemi cellulose is already
    >> gone
    >> and the cellulose is partially charred.
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > ------------------------------
    > 
    > 
     
     
     
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  ------ End of Forwarded Message



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